Agnes Ngetich wins the women's World Cross by 42 seconds
Kenya's Agnes Ngetich ran alone for most of 10 km at Apalachee Regional Park to win her first global title, the second-biggest margin in the race's history.
Photograph: Agnes Ngetich in the 10,000 m final at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, by Filip Bossuyt, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAgnes Ngetich won the senior women's race at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee on Saturday in 31:28. Uganda's Joy Cheptoyek was second in 32:10 and Ethiopia's Senayet Getachew third in 32:13. The 42-second margin is the second largest in the history of the women's race; only Grete Waitz, 44 seconds clear in 1980, has won by more.
Ngetich, the 10 km road world record holder, had taken bronze at the 2023 championships in Bathurst and finished fourth in Belgrade in 2024. This time she left nothing to a sprint. Four women went through the first 2 km loop together in 6:03. By the end of the second loop Ngetich led by 17 seconds. At halfway it was 25, after the third loop 31, and 40 seconds before the last lap.
Behind her, Cheptoyek got past Getachew on the final pass over the log stretch the organisers called Alligator Alley to become Uganda's first individual senior women's medallist at a World Cross. Ednah Kurgat was the top American in tenth, 33:28.
Kenya's run of senior women's titles reached ten. Beatrice Chebet, who won the last two, sat out the season, and Ngetich said she wanted to keep the title at home. Ethiopia won the team race with 19 points, its thirteenth senior women's team title and first since 2019, from Kenya on 36 and Uganda on 37. The United States was fourth.
Most cross country races are decided in the last kilometre. This one was decided in the second, by someone who then had to hold her nerve for eight more.
Sources: World Athletics; FloTrack.
